(Gering)-Eleven Chadron State College students assisted the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission with a project to find and capture bighorn sheep to release in their reintroduction efforts.

As previously reported, the Commission contracted a helicopter crew to capture 26 sheep at the Hubbard Gap region of the Wildcat Hills earlier this week which were moved by agency staff to Fort Robinson State Park and the Bighorn Wildlife Management Area.

This week’s project is the first to move bighorn sheep from one area of Nebraska to another. The 26 sheep were among the latest to be fitted with tracking collars and ear tags to help agency staff keep tabs on the animals’ location and better manage their populations. Fourteen others were captured, collared, tagged and released back to the Wildcat Hills.

Samples taken from the animals will also help biologists better determine the herds’ health. The project is scheduled to move to the Cedar Canyon area of the Wildcat Hills, in hopes of meeting the overall goal of processing 52 sheep.